Another Shooting

Juliette Kayyem @juliettekayyem
A teenager well known for mental struggles buys a weapon of mass destruction that has no place outside of war.
And up until yesterday’s massacre it was all perfectly legal.
Isn’t that proof of the problem? #nra

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It feels very very hopeless at least until the Democrats win back the power to change things. Today, as expected, the Republicans, the president, and Fox News were all about “mental illness” as the real problem with the constant wave of school shootings.

The only mental illness behind this is on behalf of those who still deny that our fetish for weaponry of this sort is sick, perverted, and evil.

The silver lining is that our party has become increasingly pro-gun control at all levels of government. The next time we have control of Congress and the White House, we can pass sweeping gun control legislation that begins to solve some of these problems. I also think the outrage is becoming firmer on our side, and I even see signs that more gun owners look at these events and can no longer ignore the role they have in rejecting the NRA and embracing common sense and compassion on this issue. I’m with Steve Kerr, this is a fight and our side has to bring the same level of intensity and consistency to the table. We have to vote our every politician prioritizing the NRA over human lives.

Did you watch Congressman Mike Thompson,appearing with Nancy Pelosi swearing his allegiance to the second amendment and declaring that he is a gun owner? All this before the latest victims have even been identified.

Is there a coherent left politics on guns? I can’t think of it. I know of now elected Democrat who supports making private gun ownership illegal. (If there is one, I’d love to know). Is there a real position other than the handful of things known as overwhelmingly popular, like background checks and an assault weapons ban? Is that really it?

Each event is heartbreaking and then you look to the aggressive action proposed and it’s background checks??? It’s like seeing climate catastrophes and thinking “we need better energy efficiency standards now!” There is a rabid and frothy small yet active group on the other side who is convinced to their core that any action is a violent overreach and violation of God-given freedom. There’s nothing close on the other side. I don’t know what an answer is, but after like 30 years, the politics based around “can’t we come together on common sense gun control?” has gone absolutely nowhere.

I think you’ve pretty much given the left politics of guns. I’m sure that nobody serious has proposed a complete ban on private ownership. That really would raise second amendment concerns. Not only would that per se go nowhere politically, but it would threaten even reasonable measures because the pro-gun side would point to one person suggesting that and allege that such is what all gun control advocates secretly want so we had better not give them an inch.

Of course it would raise second amendment concerns, but why is that not “serious.” The second amendment has been read incorrectly and it’s a bad amendment that should be overturned. We’ve overturned amendments before, and added others to fix deficiencies in the Constitution. Not at all easy, but possible. Maybe if there was a real alternative instead of a bunch of half-measures as the stated goal, there would be some balance from the left and an opening for these compromises.

“Not only would that per se go nowhere politically, but it would threaten even reasonable measures because the pro-gun side would point to one person suggesting that and allege that such is what all gun control advocates secretly want so we had better not give them an inch.”

The question is then – how has the politics of trying very weak half measures worked? It has not. Not even a little bit. The rabid pro-gun crowd screams that the other side is trying to take away their guns when they literally do nothing. We’re giving them more than just an inch with the current arguments. I don’t believe guns should be legal to own and I’m not an activist on the issue, but when almost every Democrat starts an argument with “of course I support Second Amendment rights, but…” there is nothing at all to inspire action.

I wasn’t quite clear on my last line regarding giving an inch and maybe I should have used quotation marks. What I envision is a pro-gun person saying, “See, that’s what the left really wants – to take away all our guns! Any regulation moves us down that slippery slope so we had better not give them an inch!” You did not say originally that you wanted to repeal the second amendment, but the advantage to making such a proposal is that it would force the pro-gun side to come out of hiding from behind the Constitution and argue their case on the merits.

I don’t think we should repeal the Second Amendment, or any amendment in the Bill of Rights. We could interpret it more rationally though. It’s the Supreme Court that expanded it to an unrestricted right to individual gun ownership.

I would also be remiss to remind people that gun violence is a daily reality and not an extraordinary event for my students and for other communities of color across America. The mass shootings are an American abomination, but so is the daily trickle of lives lost to crossfires and strays in those forgotten communities the media does not pay attention too. We can get some of those guns off the street now without waiting for leadership from Washington.

Good point. Mass shootings and petty crime both cause a large number of victims, but tend to affect different communities (or, rather, are visible in different communities).

For mass shootings, the priority #1 is getting assault weapons off the streets. … And you can do something in your community: Place citizen articles on your Town Meeting warrant banning existing assault weapons, and put the discussion on your community’s agenda. We have to force this discussion community by community, neighbor by neighbor.

For petty crime, the priority #1 is getting illegal handguns off the street. The state already has draconian laws on the books for punishing possession of illegal weapons. But the laws are simply ignored. The Police ignores these laws and regularly lets offenders off the hook. The DAs rarely pursue charges. This can be fixed, I think, if the state legislature mandated full transparency in how these cases are handled by Police and by the DAs.

Let’s see how many cases of possession of illegal weapons were swept under the rug by the DAs, then make the case through the press next time that DA is up for reelection.

The biggest issue for the pro-gun crowd is the lack of knowledge from the left.
“For mass shootings, the priority #1 is getting assault weapons off the streets. ”
What is an “assault weapon”? What is the difference between the two rifles?

there really is not much difference other than looks. The “assault weapons” that have been used in these horrific crimes are not the same weapons used by the military. When people talk about banning assault weapons, what are they really trying to ban? if you want to do something, you better know where your opponents are coming from.

Is it pro-life to allow children to massacre one another? Is it pro-military or pro-police to allow mass murderers access to military grade cop killing hardware? Is it pro-Christianity to fill churches with carnage and see the faithful carted out in body bags? If the Republicans had a conscience and the Democrats had a backbone, these are the questions they would be demanding answers for. These are the questions we should be demanding they ask.

We also got play dirty. They juxtaposed Max Cleland with bin Laden and helped defeat him. We need to juxtapose Trump and Wayne LaPierrr and every Republican incumbent with images of dead children. These bodies are the result of their morally bankrupt policies. They are allowing terrorists access to military firepower in the name of false freedom to massage their donors. Enough is enough. Either you’re okay with murdering kids or you’re standing up to the NRA.

But James, weren’t you skeptical of gun control two years ago? Yes, and I am today. I am skeptical the half measures we are spending so much political capital one will pass or work. We need to go after handguns too if we want to dent the numbers. We need to fund inner city violence prevention programs if we want to dent the numbers. We do need to fund mental health programs to dent the numbers.